HER FATHER'S BIDDING.
Evening had come, the evening of a February day, which casts its
shadow so soon. Through the door of the barn came only a deceptive
gleam, like that of a smouldering cinder, blotting out all form.
Toussaint Lumineau's arms had sunk on either side of his body; still
sitting on the joist, his face uplifted in the dusk, he waited till
the man should have crossed the yard. When he had seen the door of the
house-place, where Mathurin was watching, open and shut, he lowered
his eyes to his daughter.
"Rousille," he said, "are you still of the same mind concerning Jean
Nesmy?"
The girl, kneeling on the ground, her profile indistinct in the
darkness, slowly raised her head and stooped forward as though better
to see him who spoke in so unexpected a manner. But she had nothing to
conceal, she was not one of those who are timid and fearful; she only
quieted her beating heart, which could have cried aloud with joy, and
said, with apparent calm:
"Always, father. I have given him my love, and shall never withdraw
it. Now that Andre is gone, I quite understand that I cannot leave you
to go and live in the Bocage. But I shall never marry; I will stay
with you and serve you."
"Then you will not forsake me as they have done?"
"No, father, never."
Her father rested his hand upon her shoulder, and the girl felt
herself enveloped in a tenderness hitherto unknown. A hymn of
thanksgiving passed from soul to soul. Around them the wind and rain
were raging.
"Rousille," resumed the farmer, "I have no longer a son to lean upon.
Andre was the last to betray me. Francois has refused to come back.
And yet La Fromentiere must continue ours."
A firm, sweet voice answered:
"It must."
"Then, little one," continued her father, "your wedding bells must
ring!"
Rousille dared not understand. Still on her knees she drew a little
closer so as to touch her father. She longed that daylight would come
back to reveal the expression of the eyes fixed upon her. But the
darkness was impenetrable.
"I had always hoped," continued the farmer, "that there would be one
of my name to carry on the farm after me. God has refused me my
desire. As for you, Rousille, I should have liked to have given you
to a Maraichin like ourselves; one in like position, and from our
part. Perhaps it was pride. Things have not turned out according to my
wishes. Do you think that Jean Nesmy will consent to come back to La
Fromentiere?"
"I am certain of it! I can answer for him. He will come back!"
"And his mother will not seek to offer us any affront?"
"No, no. She loves her son too well for that; she knows everything.
But Mathurin!" and she stretched out her arm towards the house lying
hidden in the darkness. "Mathurin would not have it. He hates us! He
would make life so hard for us that we could not stay here."
"But I am still here, dear child, and I mean to gather the three of
you about me."
Had Rousille heard aright? Had her father really in so many words
given his consent to her marriage? Yes, for he was now standing
upright, and in rising he had raised his daughter, and was holding her
in close embrace, his tears falling so fast that he could not speak.
But contact with her youthful happiness seemed to have lent him fresh
courage.
"Do not fear Mathurin," he said, "I will reason with him, and he must
obey. It was I who dismissed Jean Nesmy; it is now my will that he
comes back to be my son and helper, and the master here when I am
gone."
The girl listened in the darkness.
"It is my wish that he should come back as quickly as possible, for a
place does not prosper in hired hands however good they may be. I have
thought it all out for you, Rousille. You will go from here where we
now are, straight to the Michelonnes."
"Yes, father."
"That will give me the time to speak to your brother. You will
therefore go to them and say: 'My father cannot leave La Fromentiere
and Mathurin, who has not been well these last few days. He asks you
to go for him to the Bocage, and to beg the mother of Jean Nesmy to
let her son come back to be my husband. The sooner you start the
better for us.'"
Now Rousille's tears were falling fast. Toussaint Lumineau continued:
"Go, my Rousille. Greet the Michelonnes from me ... tell them it is to
save La Fromentiere."
A whisper answered:
"Yes," and a pair of young arms were thrown round the old farmer's
neck, and his face drawn down for a long, loving kiss. Then, going a
little away from him, across the darkness through which they could not
see each other, Rousille said: "I am happy, father. I will go at once
to the Michelonnes ... but, oh! how much better it would have been if
we could have had all our people at my wedding!"
And she ran out into the night. Her father stood for a moment, proud
and happy. She had said "our people," this little Rousille; she spoke
like her ancestresses who had ruled in La Fromentiere. She was a true
descendant of the great-grandmothers she had never known, thorough
housewives, who from the very day they were brought home as wives,
staid and happy, seemed to bring with them as reading in an ever open
book the sense of family cares and joys.
Rousille ran along the road, unheeding the stoniness of the way. Rain
fell heavily, but she did not feel it. Sometimes she pressed her hand
to her heart, to calm its beating. She thought, "I am happy," and with
that she wept.
The windows of all the houses in Sallertaine were lighted when she
reached the long street. The timid sisters Michelonne had already shut
their shutters, and drawn their bolts.
"Aunts Michelonne!" she cried, knocking with her hand on the door,
"please let me in quickly."
It was the work of a moment for Veronique to draw the bolt, open the
door, and shut it behind the new-comer.
"How wet you are, Rousille!" she exclaimed, "and without cloak or
kerchief in such weather! It has struck seven. What brings you out at
such an hour?"
At the far end of the room, on a chest beside the bed nearest to the
fireplace, Adelaide had stood the solitary tallow candle, its long
smoky wick burnt to a thick glowing knob. By its dim light she was
beginning to undress, and had already taken off her apron. A corner of
the sheet turned back upon the coverlet showed a patch of whiteness;
the rest of the shop was in gloom--chairs, spinning wheels, the table,
the other bedstead, and the clock beside it calmly ticking.
"Do not let me disturb you, Aunt Adelaide," said the girl going
towards her; "I have news."
The eldest of the sisters taking the candlestick, held it up to
Rousille's face, and seeing traces of tears upon it, said:
"Sad news, again, dear child?"
"No, aunts, glad news."
"Then let us sit down, and tell it quickly."
The old sisters sat on the oak chest and made Rousille take a chair
facing them, close up that they might see her happy face, and each
taking a hand in hers prepared to listen. The three faces were close
together; the candle gave just light enough to reveal lip or eyes
irradiated with a smile.
"My news is," said Rousille, "that my father, having no longer a son
to help him, wishes Jean Nesmy to come back."
"What, Rousille, your sweetheart?"
"Aunt Michelonne, it is to save La Fromentiere."
"Then you are going to be married, pet; you are going to be married?"
exclaimed Aunt Adelaide enthusiastically, half rising; while her
sister, on the contrary, bent lower to hide her emotion.
"Yes, father has said so. If you will help me."
"If! You know I will; you are my daughter. You have only to ask for
what you want--but tell me, is it money?"
"No, aunt."
"A trousseau that we will both set about making?"
"Something far more difficult," said Rousille. "To make a journey--a
long one."
"I, a journey?"
"You, or Aunt Veronique. As far as the Bocage. Father cannot leave
home; you are to go in his stead to see Jean Nesmy's mother, and
persuade her to let her son come away. Will you do it?"
Veronique sat upright. "You go to the Bocage, Adelaide, you are more
active than I am."
"Is that any reason? So great a pleasure; to do Rousille so great a
service, why should you not have the privilege?"
"Sister, you are the elder; you take the place of the mother."
"You are right," said Adelaide simply.
She was silent for a short time; in the agitation of the news and her
decision, the pretty pink cheeks had paled. Then she said:
"You see, it is forty years since I have been beyond the town of
Chalons. I never thought to make any journey again. Where is Jean
Nesmy's country?"
With a pretty smile on her face at the recollections it evoked,
Rousille touched Aunt Michelonne's black dress three times with the
tip of her finger.
"Here," she said, "is the farm of Nouzillac, where he is employed;
there, a parish called La Flocelliere; and there Les Chatelliers,
where is his house, called La Chateau."
"I do not know any of those names, pet."
"There are hills in all directions, some small, some large, and a
great many trees. When the wind blows from Saint Michel it rains
without ceasing. Pouzanges is not far."
"I have heard speak of Saint Michel and Pouzanges when I was quite a
child by _Boquins_, who used in those days to come to our part to seek
for fuel. And when must I go?"
Lowering her soft eyes, Rousille answered:
"Father is hard pressed. He said the sooner the better."
"Holy Virgin! But I cannot start to-night. Still, look at the clock,
Veronique, your eyes are better than mine."
The younger sister rising, trotted to the foot of the tall clock
which stood between the beds, and with difficulty read the time from
the copper-clock face.
"Too late, sister. The last tramway for Chalons has just passed."
"Then," said Adelaide, "I will start to-morrow morning. I have good
legs to carry me to Quatre-Moulins, and a good tongue to ask my way
later from the shopkeepers at Chalons. I will go. All the way I shall
be thinking of you, Rousille, and when I see La Mere Nesmy--you will
say I am conceited--but I shall not be a bit embarrassed, I will tell
her of you, and I shall have plenty to tell. Why are you getting up,
little one?"
"To go home, Aunt Michelonne."
The two old sisters laughing, cried simultaneously:
"No, that you are not indeed! You have told us nothing. What did your
father say when he gave you permission? And what about Francois? And
what does Mathurin think of it all? Stay, dearie, and tell us all
about everything; and what is to be the message for Jean Nesmy?"
As when night falls over the fields partridges cluster together in a
furrow, feather to feather, so the three women again grouped
themselves, in close vicinity, in the corner of the shop. Words,
looks, smiles, gestures, sometimes tears, all that bespeaks deep
feeling, found utterance, and was re-echoed by the two auditors. A
joyous murmur floated through the dwelling of the two old maids.
Adelaide was slightly fevered; Veronique, without wishing to confess
it, was already nervous at the idea of being left alone. Time went on.
The neighbours, as they extinguished their lamps said: "Mademoiselles
Michelonne are sitting up late to-night! Work seems plentiful in their
trade!"
The town was sunk in darkness and silence under an icy rain when
Rousille left her aunt's doorstep. On both sides the same words served
for their parting. Adelaide said it first; Rousille repeated it. In
one case it was a promise; in the other an expression of thanks.
"To-morrow morning!"
"To-morrow morning!"